Animals often adapt to new challenges in the wild to survive and even thrive. Hummingbirds, for instance, have expanded their diet beyond plant nectars by learning to eat bees and other small insects. Stray dogs often ride Moscow’s subways, stretching their territories in search of food from commuters.

Like Hummingbirds, dogs and other creatures, financial advisors who serve the retirement plans marketplace also must adapt to succeed. New strategies and behaviors are often needed to meet the changing demands of plan sponsors, comply with new regulations or seize emerging opportunities as the marketplace evolves.

Once again, changes are coming to the retirement plans market that will require advisors to further adapt and expand their practices. Increasingly, advisors are being asked to support a broader menu of employee benefits beyond retirement savings plans, including healthcare, insurance protections and holistic guidance tools.

This new dynamic is being created by the intersection of interests on the part of employers and their employees. Employees need help in evaluating and managing their personal financial and benefits needs; employers are looking for ways to help their employees accomplish those goals.

Consider that nearly one in four employees say personal financial problems have become a distraction at work, according to the 2014 “Employee Financial Wellness Survey” by PricewaterhouseCoopers. It’s no surprise as money issues have consistently topped Americans’ list of biggest stressors since 2007, as reported in the American Psychological Association’s 2015 “Stress In America” survey. The sum of these fears is adding up to lost productivity in the workplace.

Employers, meanwhile, are asking advisors to fix the problem. Employers want new solutions to help employees address their personal financial issues, with nine out of 10 large employers introducing or expanding financial wellness programs this year, according to Aon Hewitt’s “2015 Hot Topics In America” report.

The financial planning crisis is being exacerbated in the workplace by the longer-term trend of employers offering more benefits on a voluntary or employee-paid basis. Currently, employees are typically given a menu of healthcare, life and disability insurance, retirement savings and other benefits. They then must figure out what benefits they need on their own and determine how—or if—they can pay for them.

The annual benefits sign-up period is a cause of angst for many employees, especially the 40 percent who confess to knowing little or nothing about their benefits and personal finances, according to MassMutual’s “2015 Employee Benefit Security Study.” This lack of knowledge and understanding means large numbers of workers struggle with benefit decision-making, make poor choices or sometimes no choices.

While the intersection of employer and employee interests is apparent, what’s also become increasingly obvious is the need for a traffic cop. Employees need tools and guidance to make better decisions, prioritize their benefit choices based on their personal needs and financial situation, and do it with minimal fuss. It’s a new opportunity for advisors who are willing to stretch their practices to help with a broader range of problem-solving and solutions.

Advisors who have already sniffed out this new opportunity are working closely with retirement plan and benefits providers that have introduced holistic tools to help employees sort through their benefits decisions. Providers are now launching, revamping or redesigning tools to promote better decision-making and outcomes concerning employee benefits and financial security.

Although many tools address individual needs such as healthcare or insurance protection or retirement, more tools that address multiple needs are being introduced. The best tools provide personalized guidance and recommendations on a comprehensive set of needs based on data about employees’ personal lives and finances, including their family situation, income, budget obligations, financial risks, and current insurance protection and retirement savings.

It’s a significant move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all benefits philosophy. The new guidance tools address individual circumstances, help employees prioritize their needs, whether it’s healthcare or insurance protection or for some, retirement savings.

The goal is to help employees make better choices and reduce stress levels over financial problems. By removing a major source of stress, the thinking goes, employees will be able to better focus on their work and enhance their productivity.

Not every advisor in the retirement plans marketplace may be ready to stretch far enough to begin offering comprehensive employee benefits. They worry that their reach may exceed their grasp.

But other advisors have already begun to expand their practices in this direction. They see the opportunity to build closer relationships with employers and the advantages of helping them improve the effectiveness of their overall benefits packages.

Ultimately, the process of natural selection will win out. Advisors who adapt and meet a broader set of employer needs will have an advantage over those who don’t. And that advantage will extend not only to winning new business but taking away business from those who do not adapt.

E. Thomas Foster Jr. is assistant vice president, Strategy and Relationships, for MassMutual Retirement Services, a division of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.